What Should I Know About the University Of Nevada @ Reno? (apartment, rentals)

[Lazydriver]

I'm planning to enroll there as an undergraduate majoring in Chemistry. It seems like a pretty good school, but what should I do when I get there? Also: what should I avoid?

[bigdave01]

I'm currently attending Nevada, and I love it. Its a wonderful school, and it definitely has a good science and chemistry program.

Are you a freshman and planning to live in the dorms? Or are you older? There is a lot of places to rent near campus, and a ton of dorm options. We have an absolutely beautiful campus that feels like an ivy league school at some parts, and the new student union and library are top notch.

Do you have any specific concerns?

[Lazydriver]

Sweet. :-D

Yeah, I plan on moving into the dorms. I'm planning on moving into Argenta, but I'm wondering if another dorm is a smarter idea (like Nye) just to save money even though there's no personal shower in Nye. The other concern is with food plans: which one is the smartest to get? The UNR website is pretty confusing about the food plans and 'unlimited swipes'.

(By the way, what is your major?)

[bigdave01]

Argenta is definitely the nicest freshman dorm but it really just depends on what you're looking for. Also keep in mind that last year due to an overwhelming number of applicants all Argenta rooms had 3 people, I don't know what they're expecting this year.

Here's my personal run-down of the dorms:

Argenta: extremely nice but due to the fact that bathrooms are in your room there is very little socializing in the hallways, and everytime I visit it is just eerily quiet.

Nye: older, but still has good sized rooms. Very social, there are always people in the hallways and everyone leaves their doors open. Its really fun, but honestly it would become too much for me as I like alone time sometimes.

White Pine: Apartment style known as the substance free hall, but it is a really cool setup. Even though its substance free, I know they don't enforce that too much.

Juniper: This is where I currently live and I don't know if its always this way, but its definitely the party dorm. There are a lot of drinking and drugs, and the hallway always smells like weed. For better or worse haha.

Manzanita/Lincoln: I don't know if you're a guy or girl, but I personally love both of these dorms. They are awesome buildings and each room has a lot of character. However, I will say I live next to Manzanita and it seems very unsocial.


And as far as swipes go; I have D premium which is my personal favorite. But it just depends on what you want. Basically, I equate the DC with eating at a sit down restaurant and once or twice a day has been plenty, I usually have leftover swipes each week, plus you get a ton of foodbucks which are great. There are a lot of great places to eat on campus such as; port of subs, panda express, villa pizza, a ton of stuff at the overlook, las trojes mexican, a ciabatta and wraps place, plus you can get dominoes delivered to your dorm which is so awesome!

And I agree the premium thing is so terribly worded, but it essentially lets you use multiple swipes at once. And I think its completely worth it whether you want to swipe a friend in, or if you have leftover swipes at the end of the week than you can use 3 swipes to get a full pizza, or you can get cereal and milk for your dorm. We used to have a tradition that every Wednesday night(when swipes reset) we would use all of our excess swipes and get pizza and play risk haha.

And I'm currently deciding between econ and accounting.

But I definitely think you made the right choice compared to UNLV. Nevada is an awesome school and the dorms are a once in a lifetime experience. I definitely think you will enjoy it here.

[Lazydriver]

Hmm... If Argenta is as quiet as you suggest and if I'm going to be dormed with three people, I'm very tempted for Nye because I enjoy meeting people and I'd rather have /one/ dormie (plus pay less). As long as, let's say I had a girl over, and I was given some free time with her and privacy. (I'm a guy, by the way.) It'd be reciprocal to the other dormie, obviously.

I'm not much of a partier. I come from a family of drug addicts and I want to steer clear of partying and getting high or drunk. So I'm probably not going to do Juniper (if that's how its like lol). Plus I hate the smell of weed. (But I'm all for it being legal, so don't take me like I'm a BAN ALL DRUGS SCOURGE OF SOCIETY RUN FOR THE HILLS. It's not the government's place to tell adults what they can and cannot do to their bodies, as long as they are fully aware of what they are doing.)

White Pine is a bit, I dunno, not my thing. Too many people. I like personal space and privacy, and I've had bad experiences with roommates before. Drama and so on.

I'm not certain how far the Foodbucks will take me. A meal each day would end up being at least $5, could be as high as $20. I like to eat :-p. But that /does/ sound tempting. The premium plan could be nice for that sort of thing. I've never played Risk before (except Risk-like games such as Warcraft 3 Risk Devo and Civilization III and IV), so that sounds fun :-).

What interests you about economics and/or accounting? I sometimes speak to a guy who went to Oxford for economics, and he loves the subject.

Thanks for the warm advice! :-D

[212david51]

Lots of budget cut backs so you might want to make sure your major is going to be continued.

Guns are not allowed on campus but the legislature may change that. In which case if you have a CWP you will be able to carry on campus.

Rents in the local area are going up as people lose their homes. Students are the last that decent rentals want to rent to. If you got $30,000 you might want to buy a condo.

The campus is on a slope. Going downhill is OK but that uphill run between classes can be a bummer. Keep that in mind if you got a physical problem.

All in all, a nice school.

[bigdave01]

Yeah the number of people in the Argenta rooms just depends on how many students apply, and because they had three this year they made it the same price as all the other dorms. Haha and yes no matter where you live you'll figure out a system with your roommate to have the room for awhile.

And don't worry too much about the meal-plan, as its really hard to decide exactly what you're gonna do, but you can change within the first two weeks once you figure out you're routine. Also I didn't mention, but the DC(main cafeteria) is great IMO, it is all you can eat and does a good job of creating variety. Its also a great atmosphere as far as cafeterias go, and many times I have gone for lunch and ended up staying for 2-3 hours because I'm having a good time with friends or more continue to show up. Overall, the food situation is great IMO, although some disagree.

And I absolutely love economics. While some of the introduction courses can seem a bit dry and impractical I find it to be a really interesting subject. A lot of it is theory(which I really enjoy), it is essentially philosophy but tied to people and how they act, and how our society is run. I also love numbers and following the stock market. We have a great econ dept, and I have had great(very impressive professors so far).

But we definitely have a good chemistry department. My room-mate is a chemical engineer, and two of my good friends are chemistry majors and they both seem satisfied with the program.

[Lazydriver]

Very true. :-).

I've been there once. I went on the UNR sponsored trip to see UNR, and we got to eat there. You're right: that cafeteria /is/ awesome. And quite tasty.

Awesome :-). Do they have plans on transferring to a grad school for Chemistry? If so, what are they thinking about? Hell, for yourself: any plans to transfer to a grad school for Economics (and which)?

[bigdave01]

Unfortunately, I'm just a freshman this year and I'm honestly not sure about grad school at all. I haven't really talked to my friends about it either.

[Lazydriver]

Hehe, indeed. It is a bit of a while to go to start thinking about it.

I wonder if anyone else from your school surfs these forums. Do the students at UNR use their own forum?